The Rat Race

I'm currently running it - at full speed. I have hardly had time to pee lately! Work is running me into the ground this week. I knew it would be busy, but it's almost out of control. I am praying for a chance to catch my breath, but I do not foresee that in the near future.
On a happier note, all other aspects of my life are running pretty smoothly. Nick and I took our beautiful picture for the new church directory this week. That was an experience. The man taking our picture said, "Yea, I am excited to have a young couple. I've been taking pictures of old people all day." Can you believe he said something like that? (Dick, did you go in that day for your picture? :)
Nick is getting over losing his voice. I am glad that he is feeling better. I have been studying all week for an Economics test that will count for 40% of my final grade, so pray for me tonight as I take that.
I apologize I have nothing interesting or witty to say. Maybe next time! :0) I hope everyone is having a fabulous week!

Bad hair day

Yeah, we all have them, I know, but it always seems so much more dramatic when it happens to you. What's the deal? How can one day my hair be awesome and perfectly in control, and the next day my best attempts result in an Animal-from-the-Muppets-like appearance? It's those days when even a pony tail looks horrid. How can you mess up a pony tail?! I still haven't figured it out - it's the same hair I had yesterday! I would just shave it all off, but my vanity won't allow it. Thus, the saga continues....

Feeling a Little Overwhelmed

I'm sure everyone goes through several day spans of feeling like they need about 35 hours in the day. Well, the next few days are spawning those feelings as we speak.

This weekend I must:
-Clean the entire house. I am baffled how a house can become so dirty and messy when no one is ever there! It's got to be the 8th wonder of the world.
-Laundry. Must I say more? The dirty clothes hamper, I am convinced, leads into the great abyss. Everytime I reach inside, I pull out more clothes that need washing. I can only imagine what it will be like when we have kids!
-Work in the yard. Yeah, we still haven't finished the landscaping in the front yard.
-Homework. I'll restrain myself from making inappropriate comments.........I brought this on myself. I can blame no one but myself. Dumb myself.....
-Help with Youth Night - My weekly wifely DCE duties.
-Practice for and play my trumpet for Sunday service. eye yi yi!
-7 dust Charles for fleas. It's the poor people's way of getting rid of fleas and ticks on their pets........and yes, you can use it on plants, too.
-Cook. But you know I really don't mind that.
-Balance the check book, and make sure all of our tax information is together in the same folder.

Seriously......I'm not sure I have time to get all this stuff done? But, somehow, it allways seems to get done, and life goes on. It's going to be a long couple of days.

Reasons #1,628 - 1,633 why I love my husband........

-He makes me feel better after a horrible day at work.

-He knows just what to do to redeem his good name after making me mad with a less than flattering comment regarding (fill in the blank).

-His laugh when he thinks something is REALLY funny makes me laugh, too.

-He claims to like my cooking, but isn't afraid to give his honest opinion when he thinks a dish "could be better" (Disclaimer: This is initially VERY annoying, but in the end, I have made some things better, I must admit. I do appreciate the honesty.)

-He unselfishly allows, and supports my dreams and goals (i.e. my MBA). Even though it's a big sacrifice, I have never once heard him complain or make a negative comment regarding furthering my education.

I must admit I thank God constantly for blessing me with MY "perfect" partner.

(I apologize for the exorbinant amount of "mushy, lovey-dovey" material submitted in this entry, but I must give credit where credit is due:))

JELL-Oh My!

So, as you read in the previous post, this past Sunday was Middle School Jello Night! Can you imagine? Praise to my great Lord that everything went pretty well. The night required the preparation of 43, count them 43, boxes of Jello. Jello has a really funky smell after a while, and I'm pretty sure I won't be eating any in the near future. Plus, after seeing feet in some kind of food, it really doesn't make you want to go out and chow it down.
Although it is kind of an "expected" thing for me to help with the youth since I am the DCE wife, I do enjoy it. It allows me to give back my time. In my hectic schedule, I sometimes have to remind myself to go to the bathroom (jk). I seem to make time for everything else, and forget about God sometimes. This gives me great accountability and way to serve Him. It's funny how I reap the benefits of serving. God wasn't playing when he said he would fill our cup full and overflowing.

I have a Dream.....

Since this is Martin Luther King Jr. Day, I thought I would talk about my "dream". As Nick and I were preparing 43 boxes of Jell-o for Middle School Jell-o night, we got to talking and amidst the talk, I unveiled my dream job. Most of you would not be surprised at this in the least.
If I had all the money in the world, and could do whatever I darn well pleased, I would own and operate my personal catering service. This would ultimately in theory fufill all my needs, utilize all of my strengths, and incorporate my passions.
How awesome of a job would that be? I would get to put my MBA to good use with the operations, marketing, and financing aspects of the business. It would be a sort of make your own rules, schedule type of a job. I would get to do one of my most favorite things in the world - cook and get PAID for it! And to top it all off, I would get to use my impeccable customer service skills.
This got me all excited, because I never did have a dream job in the back of my mind. It's sort of sad, isn't it?
Will this ever come to be? Being an entrepreneur is not conducive to my personality. It takes great risk both monitarily and emotionally. My wonderfully supportive husband said maybe once I graduate, try it out part-time on the weekends on a very small scale.
For now it's all a dream in this little head of mine, but maybe someday.......

P.S. On a different note, I wonder if MLK Jr. was Lutheran.....

I should have been in MAC.....

For all of you that aren't Concordia alum, MAC stands for Multicultural Awareness Culb. I wasn't a member during my days at CUNE, but now I could be the president! For those of you who don't know, I am the one and only white person in my work area. It's kind of weird being a minority, but the people I work with are too much fun. My immediate team consists of Antina who is half Puerto Rican, half black, Tracy who is black, Edna who is Puerto Rican, and my Manager David who is Puerto Rican. On top of that, my team works right by the Latin America correspondence team. They all call me Dulce (pronounced dulc a )which means "sweet" in Spanish. I kind of like it, which is a good thing since people call me that more than they call me by my given name! I have learned so much about Puerto Rican culture. It's been really neat. For example, you will never find a PR male wearing anything with a bull on it. This is because bulls are associated with men whose wives are cheating on them. I wonder if any PR's attend USF (their mascot is the bull). Pretty interesting, aye?
I have also been learning a little of the language. I still don't understand 90% of what is being said, but every once in a while I can pick something out of a near by conversation. And no - I'm not ease dropping. They just talk REALLY loudly - especially my mgr. :)
It's an environment like no other I've ever worked in. They are very fun loving and sincere people. They have embraced and included me from the get-go, and I will always be thankful for that. I'd like to think that I have educated them on some "white folk" stuff, as well. The other day I explained to them what a "buckle bunny" was. That was fun!! They all got a big kick out of it. They are also big practical jokers, so there is never a dull moment around here. So anyway, here is a picture of my coworkers! I thought you should meet them since I spend more time with them than with Nick!

I like this one because we look so intimidating!

We have way too much fun at work some times! Are we adorable?

Here is the final one. Although it's a crappy picture of me, it's the only one that David is included. What can I say, I'm a white girl in a multicultural world!

Back to school, Back to school.........

Today I start my second semester. Economics (Micro and Global), and Accounting (Financial and Managerial) will be the fun I will partake in for the next 16 weeks. Why am I doing this to myself again? Will this all pay off in the long run, or am I wasting time and money? I guess I will have to wait to find the answer to that question.
Some days I am still really excited about returning for my MBA, and other days, I think I'm certifiable. I have chosen USF - The University of South Florida in Tampa -to further my education. There are positives and negatives related to this - I have to drive into Tampa twice a week (about 45 minutes one way), but all of the classes are offered at night. I have to take all the "tool" classes since I didn't graduate from USF as an Undergraduate. :P Absurd I say!, but I have sucked it up and will not let 21 extra hours deter me. I do say it is re-gosh-darn-diculous that I have to take basic accounting classes when that was my minor! The university's business department holds the highest accreditation a school of Business can hold - that will hopefully look nice on a resume.
So, anyway I've been dealing with the department of redundancy department as I retake "refresher" courses that I took my last couple of years at old Concordia. I'm hoping that it will instill a bode of confidence in me before I start the core program this coming fall. I did o.k. last semester. I guess we'll see....
I have decided to go back to school now - before I have children. After I have kids, I know I will never want to go back. So, there you have it - all who were wondering when we are going to have kids - not for at least another 3 years. We will re-evaluate at that time. :)
So now that you are bored out of your mind reading things that are only of concern to me, I will sign off for now. Wish me luck tonight!

I Adore Being a Girl......Sometimes

So, it has come to my attention that women, although we are the more intelligent sex, have many more things to deal with than our male counterparts. I have come to believe that men cannot behave in any sociably acceptable, or fully functioning sort of way without the aide of a woman. Then again, I think it is probably an act so we will do everything for them.
Take my loving husband for example. He is a DIRECTOR of Christian Education. He organizes huge events, orchestrates them, and insures that they run smoothly. Why then, did it take me (literally) 15 minutes to explain to him how to pay the mortgage?
Men don't have to worry about a monthly inconvenience - which for me usually spawns a migraine. DOUBLE FUN! They don't have to worry with the pains of childbirth. They don't have to pay bills, or cook, or clean much of anything (at least mine doesn't). What DO they have to do?
I have thought about this for a long while and it suddenly occurred to me - HE HAS TO PUT UP WITH ME! :)

Green Thumb? We'll see.....

So it's almost the weekend - in about 10 minutes! What does a 23 year old Floridian do for fun on the weekend? Work in her yard, of course!
My newest project is doing some landscaping to the front of our house. This is a picture of our little house right after we bought this past summer. After paying thousands of dollars over the last six months in mortgage payments, I reckon we own part of the closet in the front room. But, now I've strayed from my topic....
As you can see, there really isn't much landscaping to the front - a couple of bushes and a rock garden. The plan is to take out all the rocks, plant two nice plants between the windows, plant some flowers under the window closest to the door, and mulch around everything.
Pray that I don't throw out my back scooping rocks! I will post an "after" picture if everything turns out o.k.

At least my hair's not blue yet

I'm sure everyone has a venting medium. For me, it's cooking. To help facilitate my crutch, my husband got me the most awesome Christmas present - a Kitchen Aid Mixer. It is quite fabulous, and red to match my kitchen! Other husbands might be permanently shipped to the dog house for buying their wife a kitchen appliance, but not mine.

Anyone who knows me knows my passion for the kitchen. If I had tons of money - and friends to invite! - I would entertain all the time. I once pondered the idea of making it my profession, but I reniged. First, I'm not all that great - I just like to pretend and make Nick tell me how phenomenal my skills are. And Second, it's been statistically proven that you tend to lose passion for something if you start getting paid for doing it (I know there are exceptions to this rule, but why risk having the passion, for something that brings me joy, dissipate?)

My aunt calls me Ms. Betty Crocker - ha ha ha. I must admit, however, that I am rather old-ladyish in several aspects. I crochet, I cook dinner most every night, I don't stay up past 10:30 90% of the time, and grow my own tomatoes in pots in the back yard. Yikes, it's almost disturbing to put this in writing one right after the other! :)

But, whatever, that's who I am. Does anyone have any good recipes?

I'm BAAACK!

Greetings to everyone. I hope y'all had an awesome Christmas and New Years. I know I did. My family came down to visit for a few days and I really enjoyed the time we had together even though it was only for a few days. I can't wait to see them again.

So, I guess everyone is busy making New Year's resolutions. I've never been the resolution type, even though I'm a pretty goal oriented person. Is it laziness, or just sheer apathy? I don't know. Kudos to all who partake in the tradition.

It's back to the grindstone today at work. I thoroughly enjoyed my break from the Marriott monotony. It stinks being a grown-up sometimes. Every once in a while I question the significance of my contribution to this world. I still don't know exactly what I want to be "when I grow up". This is for you Julianna - "My life is a riddle, wrapped in an enigma, wrapped in a vest", and I just haven't dissected it yet! There is a good chance that I may never, either. But, I'll try my very best to enjoy the ride along the path to enlightenment. :)

***I don't think that last part made any sense what-so-ever, but oh well.***

Anywho, I best be signing off for now. Good luck reading my psycho-babble!